Editorial: Obama takes the hard line

Conservative Republicans have taken their fair share of lumps recently for a seemingly unbending, uncompromising approach to all things in Washington, D.C.

But President Barack Obama deserves a dig on that account, too.

This week, Obama was slinging around words such as "irresponsible" and "absurd" to describe Republicans in the U.S. House, as a standoff over raising the U.S. debt ceiling and federal spending. Obama has staked his claim: No compromises on his side as Republicans ask for federal spending cuts.

Clearly, in a nation that suffered through the run-up to the so-called fiscal cliff, we're in for more of the same as the nation nears its debt ceiling deadline.

One thing Obama did nail, though, in his comments to the press on Monday: "We've got to break the habit of negotiating through crisis over and over."

Obama, who got much of what he was after in negotiating for a tax rate hike for the wealthiest wage-earners in the country, gained an upper hand that he has shown no clue how to use. Instead of clubbing GOP opponents, the president still has a chance to come to the table with a reasonable start and workable suggestions on how to get entitlement spending down to a manageable size.

If the president is going to insist on a hard line at every negotiation, what's ever going to get done? Sounds as if a lesson from former U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar is in order.

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Editorial: Obama takes the hard line

Conservative Republicans have taken their fair share of lumps recently for a seemingly unbending, uncompromising approach to all things in Washington, D.C.